VAT on Digital Platforms

Good points Shandy.

Adult industry treating customers like crap - who'd a guessed!!!!?????

Adult industry content providers thinking Tax and HMRC dont apply to them? Who'd a guessed?

Thing is, if my OF girls seem to be slumping in content in response to this VAT thing, that only makes it less likely that I'll renew. It is a double whammy.

to be honest shouldnt make a difference for the small things 5-20$ but for the large tips and for paying for customs and skype shows will prob effect them

What annoyed me was that it was a notice on Jul 1st and the fact they are claiming its doing the girls a favour when its prob quite the opposite


Wonder if it was the channels who dobbed them into HMRC as they were taking money away from them

I've actually messaged admire me and asked how they handle the VAT, cause if 1 site needs to pay it then surely they all do.

But I wonder if some are just absorbing it & paying it from turnover rather than passing it to directly to the customer.

(05-07-2020 07:39 )HannahsPet Wrote:  Wonder if it was the channels who dobbed them into HMRC as they were taking money away from them

HMRC will be looking at everything with a magnifying glass to help pay for the coronavirus.

Regarding the lack of notice, they maybe didn't have a lot of choice if the HMRC clampdown came with immediate effect.

Well said Shandyhand.

I do think the main reason people have complained is that it’s been soo poorly handled and with little explained reason as I’ve read on Twitter some providers won’t benefit from so you have a situation where people are being charged more with no clear reasoning and not all people will benefit from it but your still going to be paying extra.

(04-07-2020 11:01 )FanofCamilla Wrote:  Also, how are they working out what country you're in, is it from where the credit/debit card is registered? Or from your IP (wherein a VPN could be used - probaly illegally use)?

The legal requirement is to have 2 items of evidence to confirm the customer's location, which would usually be the customer's billing address and the country which issued the credit card, but could also be the customer's IP address. Providing that 2 of these match a sale can be made. If there are no matches then the transaction should not be processed and the purchase must be declined.

(04-07-2020 18:43 )fucu2 Wrote:  Depends if they are actual tips or if say you are tipping for a video as if the tip is freely given it is not part of the supply and is not in scope for VAT

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals...vatsc06130

FanofCamilla already referred to this guidance, but as he said the examples given there are all for restaurants and similar services. We don't know if tips on digital platforms should be treated in the same way. It's a grey area.

Is it possible that the girls selling stuff by DM could say "send me a £10 tip (say) and I'll send you the vid 'for free' "?

Because if it's open to that sort of abuse they may have decided that there has to be VAT on the tips.

(05-07-2020 12:29 )aaron Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 18:43 )fucu2 Wrote:  Depends if they are actual tips or if say you are tipping for a video as if the tip is freely given it is not part of the supply and is not in scope for VAT

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals...vatsc06130

FanofCamilla already referred to this guidance, but as he said the examples given there are all for restaurants and similar services. We don't know if tips on digital platforms should be treated in the same way. It's a grey area.

It applies to all platforms and businesses, including Digital platforms, the key point is it has to be given freely and not as part of the supply to be out of scope of VAT. Hence technically if you are tipping for a DM or to purchase something it is part of the supply and subject to VAT but if out of the kindness of your heart you tip and get nothing back in return it is not in scope for VAT, but OF would not have a way to differentiate between why someone tipped so are charging VAT on everything

(04-07-2020 21:44 )HannahsPet Wrote:  Dont worry Frisk will have to soon get the feeling the HMRC might be cracking down on these sites

If only they were so keen to go after the likes of Facebook Apple and google but oh well

They are keen. The last change to the EU VAT regulations which took effect in 2015 was introduced specifically to target companies like Facebook, Apple and Google. These companies had based their European operations in low VAT areas (Luxembourg and Ireland), but it now makes no difference where they are as VAT is now payable by the customer at the rate in applicable in the customer's own country. To put it plainly, the EU came up with revised VAT law specifically to gain more revenue from Facebook, Apple and Google.